Microsoft continues to defend its sagging Windows RT operating system. So far one of the only products that run the operating system is Microsoft's own Surface RT tablet, which has seen very low sales. Earlier this month, sales of the Microsoft Surface family of tablets missed targets and analysts reduced their sales forecasts.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer continues to insist that Surface is a "real business", but sales figures suggest otherwise. Major Microsoft partner Samsung has announced that it won't be releasing a Windows RT tablet in the United States because of poor demand. Samsung has left the door open to introduce a RT device later if the market demands it. So far, that demand seems unlikely.

CNET recently had an interview with Microsoft corporate vice president for Windows planning Michael Angiulo. During the talk the Microsoft executive spent some time focusing on what makes Windows RT important for Microsoft.

Angiulo stated, "It was a ton of work for us and we didn't do the work and endure the disruption for any reason other than the fact that there's a strategy there that just gets stronger over time. Looking at things now like power performance and standby time and passive [fanless] form factors. When we launched windows 8, it was really competitive with a full-sized iPad. A lot of that was made possible by the ARM [chip] architecture."

In addition, Angiulo talked a bit about complaints of legacy software not working on Windows RT. He said, "People are talking about legacy desktop software not running, but they don't think about the customer benefit of only running modern apps. The only apps that you install from the Windows store are the kind, that as a customer, you can manage your rights to."

Angiulo also believes that ARM-powered tablets will have a higher percentage shipping that feature mobile broadband because the devices have longer battery life the comparable Intel platform devices. Battery life is a big selling factor for ARM-powered devices, and increased power consumption continues to be a downside to Intel hardware in the tablet and mobile market.

Very true! Over priced under performing product is way easy to spot these days. Even if it were not overpriced, the under performance would not have rendered it much of a success. It has to at least match whatever is out there. Let's hope MS spends time to improve it. And for goodness sake, please let it participate in a Windows Domain!.Ubuntu Touch is coming real fast and it will eliminate much of RT's feature set if nothing compelling in the OS is being delivered. Many are looking forward to that especially the ones wanting to get away from Android due to its limitations. Not that V4.2.2 is deficient or anything but the overall platform will not evolve much from here.

A serious SP2 on RT should deliver a host of missing features of the PRO version of the OS. And also please use Tegra4 and Tegra 4i to really rock the market by Xmas, or else the ANdroid masses would have the hardware advantage.Do a 8 inch 4:3 aspect ratio version with T4i and 4:3 aspect ratio for a 10.8 inch model. Shoot for 10 hour battery life and they would hold their own before Xmas.